Robinrohan writes:
Heaven is the place where all the paradoxes are supposed to unravel--one is both a self and not a self; God is both all-powerful and all-good and yet contains or creates or permits evil; people are both free and pre-destined; what God says is good is good and yet God also obeys some higher laws of goodness . . .If everybody is equally bad, then He might as well let us all off. No need for hell. The analogy seems a little confused. If we are fish, then the water corresponds to worldly evil, or something of that sort. Dry land equals heaven. So heaven can't be water....If everybody is equally bad, then He might as well let us all off. No need for hell.
Iano writes:
"The Gospel is Good News for bad people and Bad News for good people"....God doesn't create evil, he creates choice. Consider the following: Heat exists, Cold doesn't. Cold is simply the absence of heat. Light exists, Darkness doesn't, Darkeness is simply the absence of light. Good exists, evil doesn't. Evil in simply the absence of Good. When God is excluded, evil follows. God doesn't obey higher laws, He is these things. Don't forget wrath and justice. Don't fall for the line God is Love - period.
Analogies DO have to be seen in context.
NIV writes:
Isa 5:20-21
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
In context, this would seem confusing lined up next to the scrip that says:
NIV writes:
Gen 3:22
22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
Unless we understand who "us" is. Job gives insight....
NIV writes:
Job 1:6-7-- One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
Us must evidently refer to Heavenly angels and the LORD. Now...Revelation speaks of a conflict.
NIV writes:
Rev 12:7-9--And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
So in a "literal" or parable type of context, God and His angels are of one Spirit and Satan and his angels are of another.
For those of you who suggest that it is Gods fault, I suppose that in a sense He created all things. Remember, however, that He never created the War. There would have been no war without rebellion. Rebellion, by definition, is trying to be God instead of letting God be God.
Trying to be God seems to me to be a type of allowable free will in an angelic sense.